Review: 5 Bullets 6 Men One-Shot

When you think gun-shoe detective type stories, in my head only he chaotic and intwined world of Sin City springs to mind. Creator, writer and highly successful Kickstarter project creator Todd Black is looking to change that with his latest work published by Source Point Press.

It’s been a long night for Detective Waverly; but then as is often noted, every night is a long night. Seems that someone has been busy; five of the biggest and baddest crime loads in the city have been found dead. All of them sat around a table, all of them shot once. With five men dead by fives bullets, a sixth person, the shooter must have walked away. But which of the many people hurt by these five are in the frame for their murders? It’s up to Waverly to find the culprit.

Todd Black demonstrates his flexibility in writing style, encompassing everything that I love in the gumshoe trope. Is it cheesy? Yeah at times it is. But that is part of the fun. Black introduces us to Waverly; one of the few good cops left in the crime filled city. As the tale is told through Waverly, we get one persons perspective in what is essentially a closed room murder or murders. Black drops breadcrumbs of clues as to the culprit, via something of a history lesson of those killed, successfully utilising one of my personal bug bears in a productive manner.

The art is supplied by Alex Gargia who goes for a black and white, stylised effect which suits the idea of the story well. In reality, there isn’t a lot of nuance in his method. Garcia tries add texture by using thin lines or even hinting at details rather than going all in, especially around faces. It works well for the most part, though maybe more focus is required for body styles and poses as some can appear a tad wooden. Garcia pulled double duty on letters to compliment his art. I don’t have a problem with that as long as there is consistency. In this case there isn’t. We go from word balloons to text and and arrow, even going as far as to have different font sizes. These elements do distract the eye.

Overall, I enjoyed the slice of noir gumshoe. Black clearly shows his appreciation for the trope, hitting all the bases well. I am very interested in seeing Black develop as a writer for both his own crowd-funded project and his work for hire.

Writing – 4 Stars

Art – 3 Stars

Overall – 3.5 Stars

Written by; Todd Black
Art by; Alex Garcia
Published by; Source Point Press

Interested in buying 5 Bullets 6 Men, check out Source Point Press website here.

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network